


It's Just Another Day

by Cyanne



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Paradigm Shift Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-06
Updated: 2011-07-06
Packaged: 2017-10-21 02:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/220096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyanne/pseuds/Cyanne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of course the school bake sale occurs while John is on a business trip. Rodney's going to kill him, if the bake sale doesn't kill Rodney first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Just Another Day

**Author's Note:**

> Set in mausi's Paradigm Shift universe (http://ps-verse.livejournal.com). Thanks to oriolegirl for the once over and mausi for the original idea and another read through. Any remaining stupidities are entirely my own fault.

"Here, Papa." Caden thrust a crumpled orange sheet at Rodney. "Teacher said to bring this home."

Rodney looked at the date on the page and sighed. "Teacher apparently said to bring it home on Monday." He made a show of pointing at the calendar on the bulletin board next to the fridge. "What day is it today," he asked, as gently as he could. Although his evening had just gotten incredibly complicated, and damn John for being out of town, this was not worth yelling at his son over. That was reserved for life or death matters, and possibly whoever ate the last of the Cherry Garcia.

At least Caden look ashamed. "Thursday," he said.

"That's right," Rodney said automatically, mind already racing to try and figure out how to solve this latest problem.

You would think the school would have learned after the zoo permission slip debacle not to send stuff home with the kids, but noooo. And it was partially Rodney's fault too; he had asked Caden on Tuesday if Mrs. O'Flanigan had sent home any notes, by then his son had apparently already forgotten all about the bake sale flyer from Monday and Rodney hadn't thought to ask again that week.

One more reason, like he needed another reason, that he needed John. Raising Caden was a two man plus extended family job, and this was just another reminder of how much he missed his husband. John's aerospace engineering conference would be over tomorrow afternoon and he'd be home that night. They'd made it a point to never both be gone at the same time, unless they could take Caden with them, and as hard as this week had been on Rodney, he knew it was a thousand times worse for John.

On a normal day, he was terrified he was going to screw up Caden permanently and the fear always intensified when he was the lone parent in the house.

"You're doing fine, Rodney," John would tell him every night, and he would always ask the same questions. It was one of their rituals.

"Did the house burn down?"

"No."

"Caden get to school?"

"Yes."

"He eat anything besides macaroni and cheese?"

"Do Spaghetti O's count?"

"Close enough. You terrorize the minions at the lab?"

"Of course."

"Well, all right then." And Rodney would have to laugh. All was almost right in his world, except for the sleeping in an empty bed.

John would always end the call by telling Caden to "Take care of your Papa, but don't tell him I said so." Rodney always knew when they got to that part of the conversation because of Caden's "I promises" in between giggles.

He resisted the urge to curse John's name for not being home to help. The swear jar was getting rather heavy but much to Rodney's glee over half of the contributions had been John's. He didn't want to have to admit to contributing to it while John was gone, although the temptation was great.

  

  1. Unfortunately, this episode proved that they were going to have to start going through Caden's backpack on a regular basis, at least until he got a little older. Rodney hated that idea; his parents had gone through his stuff until he got to about Grade 5 and only stopped when he'd figured out how to build a lightweight  reinforced aluminum backpack that only Rodney could get into. Rodney had badly wanted to show Caden the respect he'd never gotten and John had agreed.
  



"What did we say about papers from school?"

"That I had to give them to you and Daddy right away."

"Just like we go through the mail when we get home, to make sure we don't miss anything important. Promise me you'll remember next time."

"I promise. Do we get to make something," Caden asked excitedly.

"Yeah, we get to make something, " Rodney said without enthusiasm but regretted it as soon as he saw the light fade from his son's face. "And we can totally mess up the kitchen, as long as we clean up afterwards." That earned him a smile. "Let's see…" Rodney said, skimming the form.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me."

The paper said to bring an item for the bake sale on Friday, which was tomorrow. Fifteen and a half hours from now to be precise, but who's counting, Rodney thought sardonically. Caden was supposed to bring in enough for 30 pieces and $3 in small change as his preschool class  was doing a unit on money.

The note went on to say that to keep from having 25 pans of brownies, hmm, maybe they did learn something after all, each child was being assigned an item. Handwritten in perfect script next to Caden's name was his assignment- Lemon Bars.

Lovely, just lovely.

Then Rodney saw the note on the very bottom of the flyer:

"Due to possible allergic reactions we ask that you use no peanuts or tree nuts. Thank you for your cooperation."

Oh fine, they were worried about everyone else's allergies, never mind that the main ingredient in Caden's assignment could kill him. Maybe he could wear a mask and surgical gloves.

They'd have to make this from scratch. They could get a mix but Rodney would know they'd cheated, and worse, the teachers and the other parents would know and he couldn’t do that. In his mind he could see the teasing Caden would get, although the rational part of his brain, which sounded a hell of a lot like one John Sheppard, said that was insane. He ignored the voice and went to the kitchen laptop to hunt the internet for recipes.

There was at least one computer in every room, all wirelessly connected to the server in the basement. The network was the second thing Rodney had set up after the beds when they'd moved in.

"Can I help, Papa," Caden asked, and Rodney lifted him up to sit on his lap. Reaching around the squirming bundle in his arms, he ran every search parameter he could think of for lemon squares that didn't require having the use of actual lemons or the juice thereof as ingredients.

All the searches came up blank and with only, he glanced at his watch, fourteen hours and 53 minutes until he had to drop Caden off at school tomorrow, he knew he didn’t have enough time to do his own test batches.

He sighed again, and started to explain to Caden what they were going to make.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," Caden protested, sliding off Rodney's lap as he bounced up and down.

  

  1. "I know it's not chocolate but it's still," Rodney blanched and forced himself to say, "good."
  



"No," Caden said firmly, reaching up to hug Rodney's neck and Rodney was shocked to feel his son shaking. Sensing trouble, Raven rubbed up against Caden's legs, trying to offer her kittycat version of comfort.

Rubbing Caden's back to try to calm him, Rodney said softly, "Can you tell your Papa what's got you so scared, buddy?"

"No, can't make those. Don’t want you to get hurt again," Caden told him, speaking rapidly and not moving from where he had his face buried in Rodney's neck. Rodney wouldn't have believed it possible but the frightened child's grip on him tightened even further. He knew his son still occasionally had nightmares about the time Rodney had gone into anaphylactic shock from accidentally drinking orange juice. At a very young age Caden had been well versed on what could make his Papa sick, and finding one of your parents on the floor unable to breathe is not something that was easy to forget.

Rodney rapidly thought through their options. They could just make something else and send an explanatory note along with it, but Rodney really didn't want his son to be teased about it. He had his own horrific memories of how evil children could be and wasn't about to let his allergies cause more problems for his child, who was still freaking out in his arms. Screw it, they'd go with the mix, and he even thought he knew how to make Caden agree to it.

"Hey kiddo, I got an idea," he said. Caden peeled away from his neck and looked up at him warily.

"It'll be okay, trust me. Papa's a genius, remember?" That remark got him a smile at Rodney's expense but he didn't care. Part of being family was the inside jokes; not that he'd ever admit to enjoying it. After all these years, John still loved to tease Rodney about his self-proclaimed, but very much true, intelligence and their son had picked up on that ages ago.

"We'll go to the store and get a mix, okay, and while we're at it we'll get some brownies to make too, and we can surprise Daddy when he gets home tomorrow night."

Caden still looked a bit scared so Rodney did what he did best and kept talking. "You can do all the mixing on the lemon squares and protect your Papa, okay?" He was proud of himself for almost managing to say the word lemon without shuddering.

"It's pretty much all just flavoring, so as long as I don't eat any I'll be fine. So you get to lick the spoon all by yourself. But you have to share the brownies to make up for it," he finished sternly enough to make Caden laugh.

"I eat all the scary stuff for you."

"That's right. Come on kiddo, we gotta get moving before it gets too late." He picked up his wallet and started looking around for his keys. "Don't want to miss Daddy's call. And we need to get something for dinner, too." There was no way in hell he was cooking a meal on top of baking the lemon squares of death.

"Pizza," Caden said. It wasn't a question.

Rodney smiled. "Yeah, you want the kind with the pepperoni?

"And the sausage, and the extra cheese," Caden said excitedly. He was an expert at manipulating his Papa, a trait obviously inherited from his Daddy. Rodney smiled and looked at his watch again. Twenty three hours from now John would be home in their kitchen eating brownies and a few hours after that Rodney wouldn't be sleeping alone. An expert in the art of manipulation himself, he planned to use this bake sale incident to obtain as many sexual favors as he could from his husband.

Smiling at the thought, Rodney took Caden's hand and they headed out the door together.


End file.
